Stupid Cupid
by r2roswell
Summary: Valentine's Fic. Neal has come to Storybrooke. Emma won't have any of it but what happens when family and some unlikely allies meddle in their affairs? Can Emma forgive him or is this is a disaster waiting to happen?
1. Stubborn

**Chapter 1: Stubborn**

* * *

"At least talk to him," Mary Margaret said as she and Emma walked down the sidewalk.

Emma shook her head, "Not interested."

"You're going to have to at some point."

"Well it's not today I can tell you that."

"He's not going away Emma. He's made it pretty clear he wants to stay."

Emma stopped and turned to Mary Margaret. "Why do you even care?"

"Hey, what kind of question is that? You're my daughter, of course I care not to mention the fact that he's my grandson's father and Henry seems to want him around."

Emma crossed her arms in front of her. "That's what I've always been afraid of. It's not good for Henry that he's here."

"It's not good for Henry or it's not good for you?" Emma looked at Mary Margaret with sharpness in her eyes. "He's not such a bad guy. Not as bad as you made him seem anyway. You just have to give him a chance."

"And what are you basing that on?"

Emma knew it was a rhetorical question. She had been gone from the apartment an hour before Mary Margaret came looking for her.

"Oh my god you actually let him stay after I left? You actually talked to him," Emma said feeling slightly betrayed.

There was a small part that wished her parents would stay out of her business but Mary Margaret was very good when it came to meddling. Usually that ended up working better than Emma sometimes wanted to admit but this was one situation that she wished she could handle, or not handle, on her own.

"Emma if you would just listen, you'll come to find it was just a big misunderstanding."

"He misunderstood his own directions to meet me like he said he would, yeah I can see how that can be misconstrued."

"He left you so he could help you."

"Right," Emma said not believing Mary Margaret, "He left me alone, pregnant, and in jail, yeah that's really helping me."

"You don't know the story."

"But I suppose you do right, I mean what you had an hour with him and all ready you're taking sides."

"I'm not taking sides; I just see things from his perspective that's all. You're the savior-,"

"I know I don't have to be reminded of that."

Mary Margaret ignored Emma's comment, "Have you ever wondered what it was that got you to this point, who helped you here other than Henry?"

Emma put her hands up, "I don't want to know. I don't care what Neal has do with any of this, if he has anything to do with it. I'm not ready to deal with it. I'm not ready to deal with him. I just need some space from him."

"You've had eleven years."

"Doesn't feel like enough right now," Emma said as she turned her back and walked away from her mother.


	2. Choosing Sides

**Chapter 2: Choosing Sides**

* * *

The door to Granny's diner chimed as Mary Margaret walked in. David was sitting at a nearby table so she walked over.

"So how did it go," David asked before Mary Margaret sat down a second before.

She gave him a look that said 'don't ask.'

"That well hu," David said.

"I've seen her angry, hostile even but this is completely different."

"Well he did abandon her."

Mary Margaret looked at David, "His reasons were the same as ours."

"He broke her, Mary Margaret. I don't like the guy."

"After what we know happened? That's a bit hypocritical isn't it?"

"You're not actually taking his side are you, over our daughter's?"

"Of course not! I just think we should give Neal the benefit of the doubt that's all. He did come all the way from New York and he didn't have to."

David looked into his cup of coffee. "Why didn't Emma ever say anything about him?"

"I think she was just ashamed. She felt betrayed."

David looked up. "Did she ever talk about him?"

"Just once," Mary Margaret replied taking a sip of her cocoa. "She was working on the Zimmer twins' case and Henry had asked about his father. Turned out Emma told Henry a lie instead of the truth. She said he didn't need to know what really happened and that Neal wasn't the guy she made him out to be in the story she told Henry."

"Then you can see why I'm upset," David said to his wife. "For the past eleven years our daughter has grown up thinking one version of the truth when it turns out she's been completely wrong."

"I still think you're just splitting hairs. Does her imagining who her parents were for twenty-eight years not mean the same thing?"

"It's different."

"Really, tell me how."

"At least Emma didn't know who we were. It's easy for an orphaned kid to wonder where they came from. Emma was with the guy for who knows how long until she was blindsided by the fact he was never coming back for her."

"So that's the part that's bothering you in all this. It's not so much over the fact that Neal knew about the curse our daughter had to break but the fact that he loved her so much that he was willing to sacrifice that love for her and he was willing to wait however long it took."

"Don't turn this around on us. We were separated from each other by default. The guy made his choice."

Mary Margaret looked down into her half empty cup. There was no reasoning with David at this point. Though David had listened to Neal earlier today it didn't make much of a difference.

Emma was just like her father. The bottom line was that David was not going to be able to forgive Neal for what had happened until Emma would. He had broken his daughter and that was enough for him to choose sides.

* * *

From the corner of his lips he smiled as he took a sip of his coffee. It was always interesting to come into the diner and listen at the many different ramblings and conversations. Today had been an especially good day to come in. He had been able to drown out the voices and pay close attention to two in particular.

'Oh this would be fun,' he thought.


	3. Operation Pointed Arrow

**Chapter 3: Operation Pointed Arrow**

* * *

David smiled at Henry as he waited for the boy near his pick up at the stables. When Henry came closer David placed an arm around his shoulders'.

"Hey don't tell me you're getting tired of this place all ready," David said to him.

Henry shook his head. "No, it's not that."

David stopped. "Okay what is it?" Henry hesitated. "Henry?"

Henry looked up at his grandpa. "Is my mom going to be okay?"

David sighed. He should've known the toll the events from earlier would have on Henry. A lot had changed in such a short amount of time for all of them but Henry was one of those most affected. Emma had gone from being a single mother to having Henry's father back in her life, something that she hadn't been expecting at all given that she hadn't told to Henry what really happened.

David didn't know the specifics of that but he didn't have to.

"Not right away buddy. Your dad being here, it kind of upset her."

"Why because of the lie?"

"Well there's that. I'm sure your mom feels bad about lying to you about him."

Henry shook his head, "She told me what I wanted to hear why couldn't she tell me the truth about him?"

"I think she was just trying to protect you Henry."

"I'm not a little kid anymore; I can handle the bad stuff."

David looked at his grandson. Henry could handle the bad stuff that much was certain but still at eleven years old he shouldn't have to.

"Maybe she couldn't," David answered. "You saw her as the savior before any of us did. Maybe your mom didn't want to disappoint you."

"Protecting childhood innocence, that kind of thing?"

David smiled and ruffled Henry's hair. "See, you're a smart kid. It's okay to be mad at her Henry but despite her mistake she does love you. She's only trying to look out for you and do what she thinks is best."

* * *

Henry walked over to the passenger side of the truck and got in while David got in the driver's side.

"But if Neal isn't a bad guy," said Henry, "Why does my mom hate him so much?"

"Well she doesn't know the truth like we do. There's a lot of history there and a lot that still needs to be resolved."

"Then we should help them."

David sighed. He knew where this was going. "Henry I don't think we should interfere."

"Why not? Neal is gonna be around right and it's a small town so there's not many places my mom can hide from him."

"True but you can't force these kinds of things. Sometimes they need to work themselves on their own. We should let your mom deal with her issues on her own time."

Henry looked at David not sounding convinced. "It took her ten years for her to break the curse. If we let her handle it then we're gonna be waiting around another decade. I don't want to be twenty-one by the time she starts working on her issues."

"Fine," David said giving up in defeat. "But for the record you're telling your grandmother that I tried to talk you out of this."

"Deal," Henry said smugly.

"So you got a name for your new operation? I know you've got one."

"Valentine's Day is coming up in a couple weeks so I call it 'Operation Pointed Arrow.'"


End file.
